Sunday, March 10, 2013

Food! What else is there?

It's been a veeery slow couple of weeks for me. The hours seemed to crawl at a glacial pace, and yet in the blink of an eye another week has come and gone and I was still nurturing the couch potato that is me.

Thing is, I've made a few shop announcements that I was back and ready to go to work in my studio table, and yet I find myself constantly drawn from it. The mojo is not there. I've made so little and the little I've made were a tad below my personal standards. I'm feeling sheepish, and kinda iffy about risking another shout out to advertise another false start, then I say myself I have to start somewhere. Maybe this time I'll just slide into things and see how things go from there. Right now I'm feeling pretty okay. Just the other day I walked my 2 dogs, and the day after that I walked with my sister--no, she wasn't on a leash. she's a pretty good girl! And today when I made my doggies' food, I decided to shake things up and make meatballs instead of the usual stew.

This endeavor sucked my morning completely and part of lunch because silly old me bought thigh and breast fillets instead of getting ground chicken. I had to peel, slice, chop and mince my way through the greenery AND about 2 and a half puonds of the pretty pink chicken muscle. (my sister might agree with you if you're thinking I have a gross/morbid way of describing animal-sourced food)

Anyway, next time I should hold off on some of the vegetables, I got too carried away sneaking in the veggies, it ended up smelling like a veggie burger. That said, my dogs loved it :) I loosely formed them into clumps of pingpong ball size and shoved them in the oven for 15-20 mins at 350.

When they were done, I let them cool completely then packed them in little baggies. I made about 75-80 pieces. I can't be sure, I gave a few away when I first tried frying them and then more when I fished them from the oven. The baggies of 6 though I counted 12.. (or 13?) which should last us a little over a week, yippee-ki-yey!

In the clay realm, I managed to make these magnets, which I think spurred a little creative fire. I feel a bit of the old inspiration creeping back into my hands and brain. Let's see what surprises this week holds.

Of the five, these 2 are my favorites.

This one features fish balls and isaw, 2 of the best known street foods in the Philippines and kalamansi, the local counterpart of lime. I really love using Premo's granite as a background for my work but it's h*ll to condition, I must say. Do any of you have the same problem or is it just me and the climate here?

This one's a bit of a challenge for some to read especially if they don't know what they're looking at. The foods I used actually spell out "Pilipinas" or what would be Philippines to non-Filipinos. To break it down, the P is made to look like bamboo, while the rest of the letters are fashioned after popular Pinoy delicacies.

The I is puto bumbong, which is a dessert or snack made with sticky rice flour that's tinted with a nice deep purple, steamed in a segment of bamboo and then wrapped and served on a fresh banana leaf with sprinkled generously with shredded coconut, sugar and butter. YUM! You see this usually around Christmas.

The L is a local sweet bread called pilipit.

The next I is suman- sticky rice wrapped in a blade of coconut leaf then steamed. It goes great with the Philippine mango or simply dipped in a little sugar.

The P, like the L is a common type of bread. You'll see it in practically all panaderias in the country, and it's called pan de red-- well, at least in polite society. wink :D

The third I is the famous mangga't bagoong or green mango and shrimp paste. What makes it soooo good? Because it's sour, sweet, salty and sometimes spicy, that's why!

The N is pichy-pichy. This particular kakanin has a number of accepted spellings: peachy-peachy, pitsi-pitsi.. but one thing's for sure, it's yummy! The pichi-pichi is made with shredded cassava, mixed with milk, sugar, then it is steamed like most kakanins. When it's ready, it is served with either fresh shredded coconut or cheese (i personally prefer coconut)

Next is the A. Kind of self explanatory after all the others seeing as it's an upside down ice cream cone, but what makes it Pinoy is because it's called "dirty ice cream" here. The usual flavors you will see are cheese, ube(purple yam) and the universal favorite-- chocolate. You'll see carts of these being rolled around parks or schools. Really charming and definitely Filipino.

And lastly, the S. Fashioned from a strip of the kakanin made famous by Dolor's, the sapin-sapin. Its 3 multi-colored layers of steamed sticky rice flour, coconut milk and sugar. A lot of people serve it with latik or what is essentially left in the pan when one cooks down coconut milk to get the oil. It's those small brown nuggets of yumminess!

Wow, that really made me hungry. I hope you enjoyed our little gastronomic tour of the Philippines. Maybe if you find yourself here you'll try a few of the ones I've mentioned.